Revision of Written Appeal

Early Monday morning April 16, 2007 the day begins.  A day that started the same as every other but ended in infamy.  Around 7:15 a.m. Emily J. Hilscher is murdered in her dorm room.  7:19 a.m. Ryan C. Clark suffers a similar fate.  Approximately 2 hours later around 9:40 a.m., Professor G. V. Loganathan and 9 of his students are killed with two others severely wounded; room 206.  Across the hall in room 207, German professor Christopher James Bishop along with four of his students die next.  Six other students left injured.  Down the hall, rooms 211 and 204 frantically scramble to barricade the doors.  Professor Librescu and one valiant student are shot to death as the rest of room 204 escapes out the window.  Instructor Nowak and Henry Lee die while holding closed the doors of 211.  Reload.  Back to 207 and 206.  Then down to 205.  Around 9:51 a.m. the last shot sounds as the shooter bites his own bullet.  2 buildings, 2 hours, 2 guns, and one shooter leaves 33 dead and 25 injured; the Virginia Tech Massacre.

On February 7, 2011, republican representative Van Taylor filed House Bill 1167 in an effort to legalize the carrying of concealed handguns on college campuses.  In order to obtain a license to carry a gun on these campuses one must be at least 21 years old, undergo an extensive state and federal criminal records check, complete handgun safety education, and qualify using a handgun on a range.  Taylor says, “They (students) deserve the right of self defense off and on campus.”  The longtime second amendment (the right to keep and bear arms) supporter is backed by the National Rifle Association.  “Colleges and universities are not crime free zones,” Tara Mica, the NRA’s state legislative liaison told The New American reporter.  Her solution to the crime epidemic faced by higher education campuses in Texas is to give everyone a gun so that students and faculty will be able to protect themselves and keep college campuses safe.  However, Ms. Mica and Mr. Taylor seem to have overlooked a couple of issues.

The first qualification to conceal a firearm on college campuses according to the purposed bill is to be twenty-one years of age.   Twenty-one as in twenty-one bottles of beer on the wall?  Twenty-one bottles of beer?  Ok.  I see.  Society should allow 21 year old boys and girls to walk around with pistols strapped to their waists and a bottle of everclear in hand.  Right, because that’s the smart thing to do.  When actually more than half of the students at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas’ biggest college campus, are at least 21 years old and they drink like they’re half whale.  So people should be okay with granting early stage drunkards a license to kill as if they possess a clear mind to judge the proper moment to use a gun.  Who’s to say the student who just turned 21 and started their birthday off with that early morning vodka won’t shoot someone else?  Who’s to say the 21 year old frat boy with the hangover from the night before
won’t is capable of handling a firearm?  Ha! I guess 21 is the perfect age to allow students to start carrying guns. 

Another prerequisite for getting a concealed handgun license is to undergo an extensive federal and state criminal records check.  This is because only people with previous criminal backgrounds are apt to shoot on college campuses.  Just like the shooters at…. Oh that’s right; the previous gunmen on college campuses didn’t have records of criminal activity.  The recent gunman on UT’s campus, and many others, are regular students with mental illnesses or a grudge on their shoulders.  But what the heck, keeping guns from ex-convicts should make anybody feel safe.

You can’t forget to make sure that these 21 year old saints are well educated in handgun safety.  By all means!  There’s absolutely no possibility that authorities could end up teaching potential gunmen how to make sure they injure everyone else, but keep themselves safe.  None.  Also, no one will have to worry about that rare occasion when someone forgets to put the safety on the gun and accidentally shoots themselves or someone else.  This is because when people are educated about something, they practice it.  That’s why people continue to smoke cancer sticks and ride in their cars with no seatbelts.

The last thing that we as a society must make sure we teach our gun holders, our “defenders,” is how to use these guns at a gun range.  We must train a new generation of skilled marksmen who walk among us.  Keeping in mind, we trust our angelic marksmen to use their skills for good and never turn shoulder to our cause.  Though, trust gets lost all the time.  Then what?

History shows us what guns on school campuses can do.  Remember Columbine and Virginia Tech?  Do you remember the pain and the loss?  Parents with no child.  Children but no parent.  Can you hear the guns firing?  Can you see the bullets whizzing through the air?  Can you hear the deathly screams and silent falls to death?  Can you feel the fear?  Do you see the flowing tears and blood stained classrooms?  Do you sense the panic?  Can you hear the silence?

Rewind.  Guns fire.  Bullets fly.  Screams pierce the air.  Now in the midst of the hysteria and confusion people start pulling out guns.  You don’t know who’s who and what’s what.  Is she aiming at me?  Can you steer your nerves?  Who do you shoot?  Who’s the bad guy?

Do you shrink to the floor and cower under your desk wishing, hoping, praying this is all over?  Or do you reach for your gun?  Close your eyes.  Pow!  And again.  And again.  And again until this is all over.  Is that what you want?  More than anything, you just want this to be over.  Do you dare open your eyes?